EXTRAORDINARY RELIGIOUS FANATICISM.

Evening Star, Issue 3821, 24 May 1875, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY RELIGIOUS FANATICISM.

Writing from Honcsdalc, Penn,, latch’’, a correspondent of the ‘New York Herald’ says Criasey Hacker, an intelligent and beautiful young lady, living at White’s Valley, sixteen miles west of thisplaco, deliberately burned herself to death yesterday, while under the effect of extraordinary religious fanaticism. She was the daughter oi William Hacker, a wealthy and prominent farmer of the county. For some live or six years past she has at times been subject to temporary insanity, during which lapses she imagined* that, she had committed sins against ‘her Immanuel,’ which could only bo abs’dved by the making of burnt-offerings. While lab;ring under this mental huluei nation she would erect altars in the fields of her father’s farm, and sacrifice lambs to appease the' wrath of her offended diely, and also bum clothing and household articles of different kinds. Her father, a widower, fearing that she might, during one of these intervals, do herself bodily harm, kept a strict watch on her movements. Yesterday Mr Hacker had occasion to go a neighboring village, and as his daughter manifested signs of the recurrence of one of her insane intervals, he charged his hired man to watch her during his absence. At noon the man went to bis dinner, leaving the young lady in the kitoluu reading the Bib'e. For some reason < he did not return to the house until Mr Hacker came back, which was about two o’clock. When the latter entered bi> kitchen he was paralysed with honor at the sight which confronted him. On the coals and ashes of what had evidently been one of Miss Hacker’s altars lay the body of his daughter, literally burnt to a crisp. Tho face was the only part not burned. Notwithstanding tho intense agony that she must have endured, her features were not distorted in the least, but wore an expression calm and peaceful, her lips being parted in a smile, as if she died believing that through that fiery ordeal she was to pass into a joyful eternity. It appears that while tho hired man was absent Miss Hacker formed out of a set of quilting frames a pyre or altar. On this she had spread some carpet, and made herself a pillow. When found she lay on her right side, with her cheek resting on her hand. Everything seemed to indicate that this was the position she had taken at first, and from which she had not moved. At one side of the altar she had piled up a quantity of combustible wood, and when all was in readiness had fired it, from which the flames spread and enveloped the altar. In the family Bible, which was opened at the Book of Job, was the following note, found in tho handwriting of the deceased : ‘ Dear Father—My Immanuel appeared to me to-day. I r c reveals to me the fact that I have committed an unpardonable sin, which I can only obtain forgiveness for by passing through the cleansing lire. I will intercede for you, my dear father. You will find my purified body in the north-east corner of the house. I wish to have my ashes buried in my Immanuel’s ground at the north-west corner of the house. Goodbye, Meetme en Eternal ground.— Criss p. ’ Mr Hacker went to the corner of the house indicated in the note as the spot where the remains were to he buried, and found that his daughter had staked out there a piece for her grave. The coroner summoned a jury and,held an inquest on the remains. A verdict iu accordance with the above facts was rendered.